care practitioner

clinician

coach

engineering team leader

case manager

The link: youth and family supports

At the time of writing I have worked Full Time for 6 weeks.

I have heard a lot of complaining from current staff and from online reviews, but I can say very little of it has applied to my personal experience.

I thought the interview process was respectful and thorough, it appears the HR team is doing a great job of ensuring qualified candidates are hired. One thing that was asked in my interview was to participate in a mock phone call with family in crisis. This may seem intimidating at first glance, but I feel it represents a level of diligence and care that is rarely seen in hiring and I appreciated it.

My day-to-day work has many moving parts and there seems to be a very high ceiling for professional skill expansion. Every day brings something new and unique. There is a good amount of optional and mandatory training which I consider a real positive - professional upgrades and knowledge.

I appreciate working with skilled and educated colleagues with a wide variety of experiences and credentials. I appreciate the team-oriented environment where each can share/contribute personal experiences/knowledge to overall better serve community.

Perhaps I have not worked long enough to experience the complaints I've heard. I feel like The Link is undergoing positive organizational change and that brings growing pains, but I feel it is good from my point of view.

I'm happy working at The Link and I would love to stay for a long time.

The condition of the group home I worked in was depressing and hostile. I did not feel welcomed to the staff, and right away I found that the high turnaround rate was directly related to a core staff of uneducated, older people who appeared to cannibalise the younger workers.  

Inconsistency and poor understanding of core child-care foundations meant that the children in care were subject to the whims of staff who tended to react rather than be proactive, and generally not follow the recommendations of the professional network that supplied the children's care plans. 

Administrative staff came off as ineffective and jaded at best, and bullies at worst. It felt that they were truly out-of-touch with the environment of the homes as a whole.  

Workers were often left on their own to work with children who are prone to physical violence, and subject to inflexible, unreasonable working hours. It is a very disappointing, frustrating place to work, and unless there are far more supportive measures put in place to help staff feel safe and valued I foresee good workers with great attitudes to continue to leave the organisation.

Dishonest. Don’t tell you real work conditions during interviews and also dont tell you that you will never get a raise at the work place. For the risk in the job, it makes no sense for anybody to subject themselves to that stuff with no prospects of a raise. This place is also not unionised. Nothing is written down or documented. Everything is word of mouth. The work culture is all word of mouth and unprofessional which can be conveniently used against you. There is blatant favouritism. You can’t even learn anything on the job because nobody is qualified and they don’t like to take opinions from anybody because everybody’s ego is big. They don’t pay for your gas either. The senior staff lies outright to get you out of the way if they don’t like you. Some people are very toxic to work with. Supervisors practice favouritism and its a buddy buddy thing going on with the senior staff. Its all very unprofessional but if you actually have talent or drive this is not the place for you. They will make sure you don’t stick around and will resort to lying if nothing else works . 

Mass lay-offs, lack of clear communication, dishonest representation of restructuring and facts, unethical hiring and firing practices and a de-prioritization of clinical best practice have caused services to the youth to suffer and created barriers to maintaining a healthy, culturally competent workplace culture. 

There is a culture of fear, distrust, hurt and lack of investment into employee health and wellness. As a frontline worker you may find yourself with a skilled and invested supervisor who wants to support you but is burnt out and not given the resources to truly invest in your health and success. 

Despite hard work from clinical and staff teams to provide a trauma-informed, culturally competent best practice philosophy for the clients this framework is not supported by executive in terms of treatment of MYS employees. 

MYS is going through big changes. They are changing the way they treat staff and the youth. I have worked here for over a year now and this is the first time in all my years of being in this field, I’ve been treated like a human being. Sometimes things get a little hairy but what work place doesn’t have that. My supervisor has been fair to me and they do pay gas mileage! Also there’s been an increase in documentation and communication amongst staff. Unfortunately, previous employees haven’t gotten to experience the changes at MYS. I haven’t worked my butt off and I always am appreciated for what I do. Yes it can be a thankless job but when you work in this field, there are those moments. I actually had a staff who blatantly spread lies and attempted to turn everyone against each other. I would honestly give MYS a chance. It’s one of the better agencies I’ve worked for! 

A typical day working for MYS involved being present at my assigned homes for shifts ranging from 8-12hours. Working with foster children between the ages of 1-12 years of age within foster homes. Helping the children with basic needs such as homework, preparing meals, following before and after school routines, as well as administering medication. I was the only staff per shift within a home assisting the foster parent when present. The hardest part of the job was learning, understanding, and accepting that not all the children can be helped beyond their basic needs. The most rewarding part of this job was watching a child grow and excel under your care and guidance. This made this the most satisfying and worthwhile job in my life to date.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Meeting new people, making an impact on the lives of people in need, learning about other people and cultures.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Lack of support, poor pay, hazardous conditions, abuse from clients, poor benefits, lack of organization, destruction of beneficial programs, no HR support and some abuse from coworkers.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
No support from the organization, often positive coworkers but some abuse that is never dealt with by HR. Lots of burnout.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Taking care of youth, cooking, cleaning, support.

Frontline staff are caring compassionate hard working people. Youth can be extremely challenging but that is the nature of the work. Management and overall organization culture is extremely toxic and turnover is high as a result. Support and understanding is non existent for frontline staff and bullying, manipulation and verbal abuse by senior management is ignored by head people within the organization. HR is not a strong resource for staff and provides little support when needed. Extremely unhealthy work environment overall.

If you’re about to apply, I urge you not to. Most positions at The Link are thankless jobs where management makes your life h.ell and gossips about you around every corner. No respect for employee privacy. Very dangerous job and grossly underpaid. Raises are non-negotiable, not possible. Terrible, toxic environment at every level of leadership that destructs the team at the very bottom. Management does not care about you until it comes to disciplining you to make themselves look better. Extremely stressful and traumatic job and no support from coworkers or leadership. False opportunities for growth. 

MacDonald Youth Services is a commendable place to work, they provide support and care to both their clients and their staff. Training is readily available and given, and the men and women who work there are all highly devoted to their kids and mission. 

However, due to the nature of the work, burnout is often experienced due to stressful situations when dealing with youth and the shortage of people available to do this type of work. It's very easy to lose your equilibrium and either your home, school or work life is likely to suffer.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Care practitioner 25 salaries reported	$18.56 per hour
Clinician 3 salaries reported	$61,368 per year
Coach 3 salaries reported	$18.83 per hour
Engineering team leader 7 salaries reported	$20.54 per hour
Case manager 5 salaries reported	$21.95 per hour

Working at The link: youth and family supports: company overview and reviews

The link: youth and family supports

The link: youth and family supports ratings

Popular jobs at The link: youth and family supports

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected